Archive for the ‘Is It Your Bipolar Disease or Mine?’ Category

This is going to be a personal blog. That’s why I am putting it online. So nobody can read it. Actually, it’s a blog about something in my life I’ve had to come to terms with, but I think it has relevance to others who have a story to tell about their experiences with Bipolar Disease.

Earlier this year I published my first book entitled Buzzkill. It’s the story of my very disorderly struggle with Bipolar Disorder. I tried to write it a year or two earlier and it just wasn’t working. There was no flow nor was it the least bit compelling. Kind of like a Daniel Steele novel. And then one day it hit me; I wasn’t being true to myself or potential readers. To really tell the tale, I had to rip open my entire life with a scalpel, gut it and lay the steaming innards out on a stainless steel coroner’s table in their full rancid glory for all to read. And when I began writing and started feeling embarrassed and uncomfortable with my prose, I knew I had begun writing the book I intended. Then the words began to flow like hot molten lava from a big dormant volcano that waited 45 years to blow its load.

Buzzkill is about my lifelong struggle with depression, mania, hypomania, suicidal attempts, hospitalizations, medications and all of the situations that arose from my erratic behavior. Among other things, I talk about the sexual side effects from anti-depressants leaving me with absolutely no sensation in my genitals, the humiliation of being in a locked mental ward, the shrinks who almost killed me and the times I tried to kill myself. I described wild manic buying sprees and the financial disasters that ensued along with mismatched lovers and relationships gone terribly awry. The bottom line is that no matter how humiliating, I made it real for my readers. I wanted to reach inside them, grab hold of their most traumatic embarrassing Bipolar experiences and say, “It’s all right. Me too friend.”

Here in lies the problem; Nobody lives in a vacuum. Other people were part of my life experience. Parents, friends, doctors… They all played a role in my life. Some of them had their own issues and were antagonists. Some were protagonists. And, certain characters were neither good or bad, just too damn interesting to leave out. However you could not understand my life without discussing their lives. Many of these people will not appreciate my portrayal of them, regardless of its truthfulness. They will develop tunnel vision and see Buzzkill as a book all about them. They will gloss right over the parts where I’m sitting in an emergency room being forced to drink charcoal and throwing it up all over myself. Or, getting physically thrown out of a classroom in third grade as I was unable to control my emotional outbursts. All that matters is I wrote “they had a nagging voice like a goat.”

No matter how big of an earthquake ensues, I told my story as it happened to me. I make no apologies. If I censored myself Buzzkill wouldn’t be the book I intended and certainly not worth reading. Nobody wants to read another 300 pages of watered down drivel about coping with Bipolar Illness written by some Phd. with a pipe stuck up his ass.

The lesson learned is that we all have to be true to ourselves as Bipolar individuals. It’s our duty to tell our stories so we can help others like us feel more comfortable with their challenges. We can not hold back because we are afraid of the truth starting an uncontrollable wildfire. We do not start the fires, it’s the people with blinders on who don’t want to see the truth that slash and burn. And if you are not up to telling your story, that’s ok too. Not everyone is required to walk on the hot coals. Because I don’t care what anyone says, no matter how righteous of a person you are, they still burn the shit out of your feet.